Envirocon 2019

Envirocon - environmental innovation conference 2019

Last year’s Envirocon was a huge success and was very well received by those attending. This year’s conference will also be dedicated to new technology in the environmental monitoring sector, however, it will have a slightly different format. The morning session will be dedicated to presentations and speakers, and in the afternoon there will be a workshop.

Table of Contents

Date: 5th September 2019
Venue: The Crystal
Agenda & Tickets: here
Drinks: 5:30 till late

Programme

Morning session:

Speakers:

Wayne Jones, Shell
Paul Drury, Ambiental
Andy Hughes, Willowstick
Karl Daines, SGS
Steve Wilson, EPG
Andrew Porter, WSP

Lunch & Networking

Afternoon session:

Presentation: Applying Data Analytics & AI to environmental analytics by Maryam Hussein

The era of digitization is here, and the environmental industry is more than ready for a fresh approach. Environmental practitioners are exploring how to leverage technologies and methodologies in order to harness insights based on environmental data. Also, employers are now empowering their employees to make this change.
This is coupled with the belief that the next step for a company is to leverage this data as they move along the path to digital ascendancy in order to improve efficiency and accuracy of risk assessment and speed up project delivery.
This presentation covers all aspects and subject areas that must be considered and explored on this journey. Case studies and examples will be presented and discussed how the application of analytics and the build of a system of intelligence has and can transform the assessment and management of environmental risk.

Workshop: 10 Data & Analytics Techniques to automate and accelerate environmental analysis

This workshop takes a hands-on and engaged approach to present, discuss and explore the 10 most important considerations, techniques and methodologies to automate and accelerate environmental data analysis.

2 example techniques:

Partial Dependency Analysis
The partial dependence plot (short PDP or PD plot) shows the marginal effect one or two features have on the predicted outcome of a machine learning model.

A partial dependence plot can show whether the relationship between the environmental metric and other selected data variables is linear, monotonous or more complex.

Seasonality Analysis
To perform seasonality analysis, time series decomposition transforms a time series data set into multiple different time-series data sets, while the original time series is often split into 3 component series:

Seasonal: Patterns that repeat with a fixed period of time. For example, a tidal gauge will receive more a higher reading every 7 days; this would produce data with seasonality of 7 days.
Trend: The underlying trend of the metrics. A gauge continuously increasing should show a general trend that goes up.
Random: Also call “noise”, “irregular” or “remainder,” this is the residuals of the original time series after the seasonal and trend series are removed.

Attendees are encouraged to contact the speaker up to 2 weeks in advances of the workshop with specific case studies and data that will be worked through in the case study.

Reception & Refreshments

Read what our attendees thought about the previous Envirocon

“I thought the range of topics included was excellent. Going from high resolution, remote telemetry tools can be used to monitor natural source-zone depletion assessments in remote / logistically tricky locations to how satellites can be used to monitor ground movement in the UK to millimetre accuracy to create publicly available mapping resources on to the use of high-resolution gas sensors, was fascinating.

I was really struck by the advances and availability of technology and tools available to the industry, and the enthusiasm of the people who develop and use these technologies regularly. There was a common theme of the speakers being ‘problem solvers’ and I found their creativity in resolving complex issues really interesting.

One common theme that also came out of the day were “blockers” to progress and the tendency of some organisations to have a “we’ve always done it this way” attitude. Therefore, despite the advances and availability of the innovativeness of some organisations within the industry, there was a feeling that we could and should be doing more. It was a pleasure to host the day as I certainly learned a lot and look forward to putting some of this into practice in the near future I hope!”
Charlie Knox
Paragon

“I really enjoyed my time at Envirocon. It was great to get a group of like minded people together and discuss innovations that can help take our industry to the next level. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the presentations and the information obtained. I definitely learned a lot, which is a pleasant change from many of your more “standard” conferences. I look forward to the next one being even better.”
Tony Windsor, Associate Technical Director – Site Evaluation & Restoration
Arcadis

“As someone who is fortunate enough to go to many conferences and workshops as part of my work, I was very pleasantly surprised by Envirocon. The speakers were excellent – informative, punctual and interesting to listen to. The venue was a superb example of what our industry can deliver. The outcomes were well worth the time to attend and I only hope this is not a one-off event!”
Paul Nathanail, Managing Director
Land Quality Management

“I really enjoyed Envirocon 2018. It was great to have a conference specifically geared towards innovation in environmental technology. I learned a lot, found out about new kit that I never knew existed and made some useful contacts. I’ll definitely be attending next year.”
Tim Cawood
RSK

“For me, this was one of the highlights of the year. Well done to Ambisense for bringing together a large group of innovators in different disciplines and for asking the question how these ideas, concepts and principals could be adopted by each delegate’s organisation. It was great to see so many like-minded people in one place. I’m already looking forward to the next conference.”
Geraint Williams, Associate
ALS

“Just wanted to say well done to the team for effort and diligence in pulling together a very successful event. It was packed with knowledge and informative topics from broad range of speakers.
The conference provided an excellent opportunity to catch up with the industry professionals. Let’s not forget the great spot for networking afterwards.
For the first time, it has definitely raised the bar.”
Magda Wyrwas
Groundsure

“I really enjoyed EnviroCon. It was such a great combination of industry experts, consultants and technology providers. As a technology provider, it was so neat to learn more about the challenges faced by consultants as well as learning more about advances in technology outside of what we do. I found the conference very relevant and the presentations were all really well done. Thanks!”
Colleen Gosse
Eosense